Maldives: Former President & 2 Top Judges Charged With Terrorism

Maldives Prosecutors Office on Tuesday charged the country's former President and two top judges with terrorism.

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a former President (in office from 11 November 1978 – 11 November 2008), Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed; and Justice Ali Hameed, were among nine people charged at the Criminal Court.

Prosecutor General’s office said that Gayoom, Saeed and Hameed have been charged with obstruction of justice. They had refused to hand over their mobile phones to the police.

Prosecutors slapped similar charges against four Members of Parliament:

According to a statement released by the Prosecutor General’s office, the four who remain in custody under the State of Emergency had influenced sitting judges and bribed fellow MPs to back their plan to overthrow the government.

Gayoom and the judges were arrested last month amid political turmoil that followed a Supreme Court order to release from prison a group of President Yameen Abdul Gayoom's political opponents. The president is a half-brother of the former dictator, who is now political enemies.

The group was jailed after facing trials criticized over allegations of due process violations. Saeed and Hameed helped order the release and retrial of the prisoners.

The government declared a state of emergency and arrested the two judges, after which the three remaining judges reversed the order to release Yameen's political opponents.

The two top court judges along with now jailed Chief Judicial Administrator Hassan Saeed are also facing bribery charges.

Chief justice Saeed is facing a fourth charge of impeding the functioning of the state by allegedly blocking the receipt of three letters sent by President Abdulla Yameen shortly after the top court’s contentions ruling on February.

The Chief Judicial administrator is facing the same charge for refusing to come for police questioning.

The document shows that the beneficiaries of the payment were judge Hameed’s son, Chief justice Saeed and the ex-wife of the Chief Judicial Administrator, the statement said.

The policed had verified the signatory of the document to be Siyad Gasim while his fingerprints were also found on the document.

The PG’s office said the Supreme Court order on February 1 was a premeditated plot to overthrow the government.

The island nation has been embroiled in political turmoil after the Supreme Court on February 1 ordered the immediate release of jailed political leaders including self-exiled former President Mohamed Nasheed.